6.  Because, by improving its agriculture and introducing useful machinery, railroads, &c., for which it has large available capital, it can produce sugar at a diminished cost.

7.  And lastly, because the proprietors have continuous labour at command, until slavery be abolished—­of which there seems no present prospect.  The slave population numbers about 350,000, and the free coloured population, about 90,000.

The consumption of sugar, during 1847, very singularly tallied with the production of the British Colonies that year—­being exactly 289,000 tons; but as 50,000 tons of foreign sugar were consumed, an accumulation of British plantation sugar necessarily remained on hand.

The production of the French colonies was 100,000 tons, of which France received nine-tenths.

In 1836, Jamaica made 1,136,554 cwt. of sugar.  In 1840, its produce had fallen off to 545,600 cwt.; but in the same years, Porto Rico had increased its sugar crop, from 498,000 cwt., to 1,000,000 cwt.  In 1837, Cuba made 9,060,058 arrobas of sugar, equal to 132,765 hhds.; in 1841, it had increased to 139,000 hhds.  The largest crop grown in the West Indies, since 1838, was that of 1847, which amounted to 159,600 tons.

The annexed returns of the sugar crops of Barbados and Jamaica, for a series of years may, be interesting:—­

SUGAR CROPS OF THE ISLAND OF BARBADOS, FROM 1827 TO 1846 AND 1851.

1827 18,109 hhds. 1828 28,533 " 1829 23,486 " 1830 26,360 " 1831 28,174 " 1832 19,761 " 1833 28,099 " 1834 28,710 " 1835 25,371 " 1836 26,358 " 1837 31,670 " 1838 33,058 " 1839 28,213 " 1840 13,589 " 1841 17,801 " 1842 21,607 " 1843 24,587 " 1844 23,147 " 1845 24,767 " 1846 21,936 " 1851 48,000 "

SUGAR CROPS OF THE ISLAND OF JAMAICA, FROM 1790 TO 1851.

1790 91,131 " 1791 91,020 " 1792 ... " 1793 82,136 " 1794 97,124 " 1795 95,372 " 1796 96,460 " 1797 85,109 " 1798 95,858 " 1799 110,646 " 1800 105,584 " 1801 139,036 " 1802 140,113 " 1803 115,496 " 1804 112,163 " 1805 150,352 " 1806 146,601 " 1807 135,203 " 1808 132,333 " 1809 114,630 " 1810 112,208 " 1811 138,292 " 1812 113,173 " 1813 109,158 " 1814 104,558 " 1815 127,209 " 1816 100,382 " 1817 123,766 " 1818 121,758 " 1819 116,382 " 1820 122,922 " 1821 119,560 " 1822 94,515 " 1823 101,271 " 1824 106,009 " 1825 72,090 " 1826 106,712 " 1827 87,399 " 1828 101,575 " 1829 97,893 " 1830 100,205 " 1831